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The First Rim War
The First Rim War, also known as the Rim War, '''the '''Sagittarian War, or the First Invasion, was a System-wide war that lasted from 2251 to 2253. This war involved nearly every member of the human race in some way, as the war spread to nearly every planet and moon in the Solar System. The war was fought between two factions, the invading alien star fleet from the star of Tau Sagittarii, and the military alliance composed of the Three Nations (The Holy Ruskan Empire, the Chinese Republic, and the Brazilian Federation) called the Tri-Alliance or simply the Trilliance. Up until then, it was by far the most destructive, the most costly, and the most influential war in Human history. The war directly involved the standing fleets of every nation of Earth. The nations of humanity threw every resource they had available at their more advanced enemies. The war resulted in the deaths of about 74 million humans and about 2.5 million Sagittarians. The goal of the Sagittarians was to subdue the human populace by destroying their military forces, and enslave the survivors. Background The Alliance of Liminos was a global organization on the Sagittarian home world of Daxada. This Alliance was originally formed in order to conquer their sister race on their sister planet of Paxada. The Sagittarians were disgusted by the way of life of the native Kendarians, an industrial civilization that was 200 years behind the Sagittarians in technological progression. Known as the War of the Tau, the Sagittarians fought the natives of Paxada for control of the planet. In a grueling war of 12 years, bombing, massacre, and disastrous military defeats had taken the majority of Paxada from the Kendarians. At the conclusion of the war, 85% of the pre-arrival population was dead. In the Vanis-Dendrek Treaty, the Kendarians officially surrendered to the Alliance of Liminos. In the years following the war, the Alliance Colonial Organization took away more and more rights from the Kendarian survivors over time. 25 years after the war, the Kendarians were slaves to the Sagittarians. This war was extremely costly for the Sagittarian race as a whole. The War of the Tau defined the existence of the Sagittarians in its duration. The civilian population believed in the actions of the Alliance, and saw the Kendarians as savages. The war led to an extremely xenophobic attitude in the Alliance and the general population of Daxada. Most historians cite the War of the Tau as the feather that tipped the scale leading to the First Rim War. Early Conflict On August 2, 2251, the National Preservation Alliance detected an organized grouping of celestial objects set on a course to arrive in the Solar System. They calculated their arrival to occur in two weeks at the Ruskan Exos Station. The Ruskan government mobilized their greatest battle group, the Azorean Fleet, to meet the unknown objects and potentially stop their collision if necessary. When the Azorean Fleet arrived and set up a defensive perimeter around the station, the foreign objects changed their course to the Republic colony of Vaasa (Pluto). On August 13, 2251, the objects were reconnoitered by Chinese and Ruskan scouts. It was discovered that the objects previously thought to be some sort of slow moving asteroid shower was actually a fleet of 78 warships. The scouts had discovered one of three Sagittarian colonization fleets that had been launched into the stars years before. This fleet's objective was to annihilate every Human colony in the Solar System, then enslave the people of Earth like they did to the Kendarians. On August 15, the alien fleet stopped a distance away from Pluto. In a quick and decisive battle, the Chinese Hainan Battlegroup was destroyed. The colony of Vaasa was subsequently bombarded from orbit. After the loss of Pluto, the governments of Earth were on high alert and mobilized the planetary militias of their holdings in the System. The enemy forces progressed deeper into the System until they reached Neptune Sector, an area controlled by the Chinese Republic but was also the site of the Trans-Neptunian Station, an installation in one of the Lagrangian points of Neptune that was an extremely important trading hub in the Outer System for the Ruskan Empire and the Chinese Republic. Neptune was an important mining colony to the Republic at the time. Neptune Sector was seen as a crucial point that the invasion force must not be allowed to pass. Two Chinese battlegroups arrived in orbit of Neptune to protect it from the coming attack. The Sagittarian fleet split in half, the first heading toward Neptune proper, and the second headed to the Trans-Neptunian Station. The Holy Ruskan Empire mobilized the famed Azorean Fleet to protect the station from the invasion. On September 2, 2251, the invasion fleet launched a coordinated attack on the TNS and the Chinese fleets protecting Neptune. In the large battle that followed, both sides took huge losses. To the surprise of Triple Alliance commanders, almost half of the alien fleet was destroyed in the battle. The Ruskan Azorean Fleet and the Chinese battlegroups also took massive losses, with nearly half of the Azorean Fleet vanquished and almost the entirety of the Chinese Navy. What remained of the Chinese battlegroups retreated to Vesta, abandoning their holdings on Neptune. Despite the supposed victory on Neptune and the TNS, the Triple Alliance deemed it necessary to tighten their grip on the Inner System. Trilliance commanders were afraid that alien ships could slip through the light defenses in the Asteroid Belt and wreak havoc on the poorly defended inner planets. The Battle of Neptune gave humanity hope in the possibility of eventually defeating the alien menace. The battle proved to many that the Sagittarians were not invincible. The System was still unsure of the length of their victory, because there was no telling if more enemy craft were on their way from a faraway star. The Battle of the Belt The second era of the war is what is referred to as the Battle of the Belt. Believing firmly that the aliens must never set foot in the Inner System, the Empire, the Republic, and the Federation fleets all organized the largest defensive perimeter in the history of the System. The so-called Tri-Alliance or the ‘Trilliance’ abandoned all strongholds in the Outer System, with the intention of building up a better defense. As the aliens destroyed and plundered the colonies of Humanity in the Outer System, the forces of the Ruskan Empire congregated and formed new strategies to utilize against the extrasolar threat. The Republic and the Federation of Brazil focused on constructing warheads, minefields, and traps for the enemy as they advanced farther into the Asteroid Belt. A stalemate of three months provided the aliens with their only option: a full frontal assault to drive the Humans from the Belt. So they congregated their fleets and attacked the world of Ceres, a Federation planet that had been used for the last five months as the headquarters of the Trilliance effort to defend the Belt. The initial attack was anticipated and erupted into a battle as large as the Battle over Neptune. The complete effort of all the forces of the Trilliance was not enough to stop the full array of Sagittarian weaponry. Before they were able to take substantial losses, the Ruskani fleets retreated. The Battle of the Belt was not yet over, however. Planetary militia continued to hold portions of the surface of Ceres for months after the Trilliance retreat until their eventual defeat in the Battle of Grand Plateau. Conflict in the Inner System From the start of the war, the Ruskan Imperial Fleet had been working on a secret project in the Shipyards of Ferinia. Originally planned to help the Ruskan Empire assert its dominance over the Solar System, the weapon now could only hope to aid the war effort. The weapon, a ship called the Tuman, was a revolutionary warship that had the potential to turn the tide of the war. The weapon was entering its final stages of completion when the Sagittarian Fleet defeated the Triple Alliance over Ceres. The 43 remaining enemy ships congregated in one fleet near Ceres on May 18, 2252. In an unpredicted move, the entire alien fleet disappeared and immediately reappeared near Earth, on the opposite side of the planet than the Shipyards of Ferinia. An effort began to stall the alien ships until the brunt of the Trilliance Fleet arrived. Ballistic missiles were fired from the surface of Earth, fighter defense complements of the stations in orbit of the planet joined the battle to cripple the fleet before it could move any closer to Earth. The Tuman ''was launched on May 19, 2252 as the alien fleet was still consumed in battle with thousands of small ships. Little damage was done to the Sagittarian ships, but their movement was restricted due to having to divert most of their power to defense mechanisms. During the chaos in orbit, an alien frigate broke off from formation and flew down to the surface of Earth. The vessel landed in a region of the Holy Ruskan Empire called Arkhangelsk. A group of Sagittarian soldiers broke into the Seeing Eye Observatory, a large complex being used for refugee shelter at the time. The soldiers abducted a metalworker named Rendi Fores, and returned to their vessel. The craft took off from the surface before the military could arrive. The ship, rather than returning to the main Sagittarian Fleet, launched into the depths of space, never to be seen again. The ship seemed to be heading in the direction of the supposed Sagittarian home star. In a coordinated naval assault, the Triple Alliance accompanied by the ''Tuman arrived to surround the Sagittarian Fleet. The resulting Battle of Earth was the largest of the war. The combination of the already damaged Sagittarian ships, the entire Triple Alliance attacking, and the use of the Tuman's advanced weaponry destroyed the majority of the fleet. After the destruction of the three Forester-class destroyers, the Sagittarian Fleet went into full retreat. To most in the Inner System, the war had been won. The remaining Sagittarian ships sought refuge from the Triple Alliance in the Outer System, and were slowly hunted down and destroyed. The Sagittarian colony cruiser, the largest ship in the fleet was stopped in the Outer System, just past Neptune. Communications were opened by the Sagittarians, and the Triple Alliance agreed to send three dignitaries representing their nations to the cruiser. In the resulting talks, the Triple Alliance representatives presented the Treaty of Boris-Garner. The general outline of the treaty stated that the Sagittarians remaining in the Solar System must offer their unconditional surrender to the Triple Alliance. The treaty also stated that the Sagittarian colony cruiser would be allowed to return to its home star under the condition that the Sagittarians must never return to Sol with any military presence. Impact The First Rim War surpassed any other in casualties, number of people involved, and economic cost by a large amount. The war changed the political dynamic of the Solar System, and allowed the Holy Ruskan Empire to garner a large advantage over the competing Chinese Republic and Federation of Brazil. Upon the failure of the Triple Alliance Permanence Act to pass in Council of Nations, the arms race between the three former Triple Alliance nations resumed and the countries once again raced into the depths of the Solar System. Casualties 74,500,000 people died in the First Rim War, 70,000,000 of which were civilians. The scorched-earth tactics of the Sagittarians in their conquering of the Solar System included bombarding planets from orbit, targeting both military and civilian targets. The largest losses of Human life included the Siege of Vaasa (11,000,000 dead), the Siege of Ceres (31,000,000 dead), the Siege of Io (3,500,000 dead), the Siege of Ganymede (9,000,000 dead), and the Siege of Triton (7,500,000 dead). Millions more died aboard colonial vessels attempting to return to Earth. A great deal more civilians were killed in the Battle of Grand Plateau on Ceres. Technological Advancement Years of salvage after the war lead to the adaptation of many Sagittarian technologies to existing Human technologies. One of the most notable inventions was the reflex drive, an engine capable of bending space to propel a ship up to ten light years (4 parsecs) at a time. A Ruskan company called Warwick Manufactories attained the first working iteration of the reflex drive. They sold it at extravagant prices to governments and private corporations. Refugee Crisis The war displaced millions of citizens in the Outer System. Most of those who lost their homes returned to Earth, which was already growing overpopulated. Those who returned to the planet struggled to find jobs and even housing. In the post-war era, extending until the early 2270's, riots and revolt were common among a lower class that had been created by the war.